1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an insulation displacement terminal utilizing a wire receiving opening in line with a longitudinal wire slot. Placing a wire in the wire receiving opening and rotating the wire relative to the terminal, terminates the wire in the wire receiving slot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many instances where terminal blocks are set up in high density arrays. Many of these terminal blocks are simply threaded members fixed with insulation material which receive wires either wrapped around the threaded members and secured thereto by an application of a nut or the wires are terminated by known spade or ring terminals and then secured to the threaded member by a nut. While these have, in some instances, provided effective means for termination, they have not always been convenient for maintenance or repair and they frequently are subjected to environmental degradation with a resulting loss of desired electrical characteristics.
There is a need, predominantly within the telecommunications industry for reusable terminals, and terminals which can accommodate more than one conductor size. The telephone wires coming from the phone company can either be in the form of buried cable or aerial wires. The high density arrays would be mounted in either an enclosure on the aerial mount or on an enclosed pedestal affixed to the ground. As new telephones are installed in a selected locality, the phone wires are then terminated to the respective terminals on the high density array. The wire sizes within the industry are not always the same gauge and therefore the terminals must be designed to accommodate more than one wire size. A typical size wire running from the high density array to the phone installation is steel wire with a gauge of 181/2 AWG, although, other phone installations use copper wire having a gauge of 23 AWG. It can be appreciated then, that a terminal having a higher quality means for terminating conductors and having means to accommodate more than one wire size, would be a substantial improvement within the industry. U.S. Pat. No. 4,431,247 shows an insulated terminal and module, however the shell of the terminal is single thickness of stamping and it also utilizes a one-wire opening for insulation displacement.